Hannah is every bit the usual young single professional: educated, sophisticated, and a bit reserved. But unbeknownst to her family, she's not actually a legal secretary. She works as Belle de Jour, a glamorous call girl with a massive price tag who adores her job. Along with her male best friend Ben (who has resigned himself to Belle's profession) and her rather over-eager sex-worker-in-training protegee Bambi, we get to see Hannah/Belle navigate her work, taking care of finances, dealing with customer retention and satisfaction issues, and attending interviews for "promotion". So basically, a Work Com meets Sex and the City. And yes, this is a post-watershed show, so be prepared for tits, ass, cocks, and fetishes a plenty.

Belle loves her job, and has no moral qualms with sleeping with men who are in monogamous relationships — after all, she always cheated on her boyfriends as well. But her own wants and needs still make it difficult for her at times to stay professional. Throughout the series, she struggles with catering to fetishes she's not into, she finds it hard to make normal friends, she occasionally skips out on clients, and keeping everything a secret from her family isn't always easy.

Downer Ending: Belle ultimately decides that she can't reconcile her job as an escort with a stable relationship. The final scene has her breaking up with Ben, believing he deserves better, and tearfully walking off into the night.

English Rose: The trope is referenced in season 4, episode 5 when Belle puts an ad on her website "Call now for a classic English Rose" when she's staying in New York. As a pretty Englishwoman, she sure can fulfill this dream of meeting a classy, petite, fair-skinned and fair-haired English girl to her customers. And even though as Hannah, she is an all around nice girl and intelligent, her job as a call girl and her glamorous, sexy appearance are quite far from the ideal of wholesome beauty.

Ethical Slut: Mistress Sirona. Belle is a bit shocked, and a bit uncomfortable, when she learns just how easy open relationships can be. She herself always cheated on her boyfriends and has no qualms about sleeping with people without their wives and girlfriends knowing, so a completely ethical open relationship is a very alien idea for her.

Hide Your Pregnancy: Billie Piper was pregnant during filming of the second series. It wouldn't make much sense to have a pregnancy written in, so they instead put her in unflattering and baggy dresses, and used body doubles for the more intimate scenes. It is actually quite noticeable if you know to look for it.

Idiot Ball: In series 4, episode 4, Belle swaps clients with Charlotte, a dominatrix who has been showing great discontent with Belle being her temporary boss. Then she's clearly surprised and outraged that said client is an autonepiophilist.

Little Red Fighting Hood: During a fairy-tale-themed orgy Bambi, dressed up as Red Riding Hood, saves Belle from getting raped by another guest using her own partner's handgun (a literal Chekhov's Gun, in fact).

Shout-Out: Belle de Jour was a French movie from the '60s about a bored housewife who decides to become a prostitute during the day while her husband is at work. The reference, both in Real Life and in the show, is most likely intentional.

Upper-Class Twit: Byron, though he is shown to genuinely love and care for Bambi.

Undisclosed Funds: For the first half of series 1, until she reveals that she earns £105,000/year.

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